20 Chocolates

Chocolates Every now and again, a plain grey cardboard box was dished out to each boy in our House, and this, believe it or not, was a present from the great chocolate manufacturers, Cadbury. Inside the box there were twelve bars of chocolate, all of different shapes, all with different fillings and all with numbers from one to twelve stamped on the chocolate underneath. Eleven of these bars were new inventions from the factory. The twelfth was the 'control' bar, one that we all knew well, usually a Cadbury's Coffee Cream bar. Also in the box was a sheet of paper with the numbers one to twelve on it as well as two blank columns, one for giving marks to each chocolate from nought to ten, and the other for comments.

每隔一段时间，一个普通的灰色纸盒就会被分发给我们学院的每个男孩，信不信由你，这是来自巧克力大制造商吉百利的礼物。 盒子里有12块巧克力，形状各异，馅料也各不相同，下面的巧克力上都印着从1到12的数字。 其中11条是工厂新发明的。 第十二种是“对照”棒，我们都很熟悉，通常是吉百利的咖啡奶油棒。 盒子里还有一张纸，上面写着数字1到12，还有两列空白栏，一栏是给每块巧克力从0到10的分数，另一栏是评论。

All we were required to do in return for this splendid gift was to taste very carefully each bar of chocolate, give it marks and make an intelligent comment on why we liked it or disliked it. It was a clever stunt. Cadbury's were using some of the greatest chocolate-bar experts in the world to test out their new inventions. We were of a sensible age, between thirteen and eighteen, and we knew intimately every chocolate bar in existence, from the Milk Flake to the Lemon Marshmallow. Quite obviously our opinions on anything new would be valuable. All of us entered into this game with great gusto, sitting in our studies and nibbling each bar with the air of connoisseurs, giving our marks and making our comments. 'Too subtle for the common palate,' was one note that I remember writing down.

作为对这份精美礼物的回报，我们所要做的就是仔细品尝每一块巧克力，给它打分，并就我们喜欢或不喜欢它的原因做出明智的评论。 这是一个聪明的噱头。吉百利请来了一些世界上最好的巧克力棒专家来测试他们的新发明。 我们的年龄在十三到十八岁之间，很懂事，从牛奶片到柠檬棉花糖，我们对市面上的每一种巧克力都了如指掌。 很明显，我们对任何新事物的意见都是有价值的。 我们大家都兴致勃勃地参加了这个游戏，坐在书斋里，带着鉴赏家的神气，一口一口地咬着，给自己的分数，发表自己的意见。 “太微妙了，常人难以接受，”这是我记得自己写下的一句话。

For me, the importance of all this was that I began to realize that the large chocolate companies actually did possess inventing rooms and they took their inventing very seriously. I used to picture a long white room like a laboratory with pots of chocolate and fudge and all sorts of other delicious fillings bubbling away on the stoves, while men and women in white coats moved between the bubbling pots, tasting and mixing and concocting their wonderful new inventions. I used to imagine myself working in one of these labs and suddenly I would come up with something so absolutely unbearably delicious that I would grab it in my hand and go rushing out of the lab and along the corridor and right into the office of the great Mr Cadbury himself. 'I've got it, sir!' I

对我来说，这一切的重要性在于，我开始意识到大型巧克力公司实际上确实拥有发明室，而且他们非常认真地对待自己的发明。 我曾经想象过一间长长的白色房间，就像实验室一样，炉子上放着一罐罐巧克力、软糖和其他各种美味的馅料，咕嘟咕嘟地冒着泡泡，穿着白大褂的男男女女在咕嘟咕嘟的锅之间穿梭，品尝、混合和调制他们奇妙的新发明。 我曾经想象自己在这样的实验室里工作，突然间，我想出了一种绝对美味的东西，我会把它抓在手里，冲出实验室，沿着走廊，直奔吉百利先生本人的办公室。 “我知道了，先生!”我

would shout, putting the chocolate in front of him. 'It's fantastic! It's fabulous! It's marvellous! It's irresistible!' Slowly, the great man would pick up my newly invented chocolate and he would take a small bite. He would roll it round his mouth. Then all at once, he would leap up from his chair, crying, 'You've got it! You've done it! It's a miracle!' He would slap me on the back and shout, 'We'll sell it by the million! We'll sweep the world with this one! How on earth did you do it? Your salary is doubled!' It was lovely dreaming those dreams, and I have no doubt at all that, thirty-five years later, when I was looking for a plot for my second book for children, I remembered those little cardboard boxes and the newly-invented chocolates inside them, and I began to write a book called Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

他会大叫，把巧克力放在他面前。 “这太棒了!这是令人难以置信的!这是不可思议的!这是不可抗拒的!”慢慢地，这位伟人拿起我新发明的巧克力，咬了一小口。 他会把它卷在嘴里。 然后，他会突然从椅子上跳起来，喊道:“你抓住了!你做到了!这是个奇迹!”他会拍拍我的背，大声说:‘我们要按百万卖出!我们要用这个横扫世界!你到底是怎么做到的? 你的工资翻了一倍!”做那些梦是很可爱的，我毫不怀疑，35年后，当我为我的第二本儿童读物寻找情节时，我想起了那些小纸板箱和里面新发明的巧克力，于是我开始写一本名为《查理和巧克力工厂》的书。